Not Too Late to Get Tough on the Digital TV Issue

The airwaves that surround us, carrying signals for pagers, cell phones and TV shows, may not be as tangible as other public resources like Yosemite National Park or the Colorado River, but they are just as valuable and finite. And in recently handing TV stations a big chunk of the broadcast spectrum, worth as much as $70 billion on the open market, the federal government has so far gotten little in return. But there is still time to remedy that.

Last year, Congress passed a bill telling the Federal Communications Commission to give this valuable spectrum to the TV industry, which would use it to bring a dazzling new technology into American homes: razor-sharp, high-definition digital TV broadcasts. Analog broadcasts, the current technology, would continue side by side with digital, preventing disruption to those viewers who did not immediately buy the new digital TV receivers or install conversion boxes.

That’s what was intended. But although some broadcasters have agreed to a target date of Christmas 1998 for having digital TV up and running at network-affiliated stations in the top 10 markets (including Greater Los Angeles), that date is not binding. Already the broadcasters’ commitment to a 1998 delivery is wavering, despite manufacturers’ eagerness to get the new televisions on the market.

What’s happening is that broadcasters are beginning to see other, more immediately lucrative uses for their new spectrum, such as paging, broadcast Internet service and even subscription TV.

That’s why the National Assn. of Broadcasters lobbied both the 103rd and the 104th Congress for legislation granting them “flexibility,” a buzzword meaning they can use their allotted airwaves for services other than free TV. And the slower they roll out digital TV, the longer they get to keep the spectrum space that they’re using for today’s broadcasting and which has to be returned to the government once digital is fully phased in. In addition, broadcasters are concerned that the returned spectrum space might end up in the hands of media competitors. The target date for the return, 2006, also is not binding, and last week a TV trade group executive called that date “all fiction.”

Though a fast roll-out of digital TV is not necessarily in the broadcasters’ best interest, it is in the American people’s best interest. So Congress should insist on a swift timetable for the debut of digital TV. The FCC, in turn, should require that broadcasters stop balking at the idea of providing free air time for political debates and providing the kind of content-based TV ratings that a bevy of conservative, liberal and moderate interest groups last week told the FCC they wanted.

Since the 1920s, Congress and the FCC have expected broadcasters to meet varying public interest obligations in return for using public property. If they refuse now to meet some minimal new obligations in return for a $70-billion gift, Congress should use its power to take back the spectrum it blithely gave away.